Description

The world of the Norsemen -- men of the North -- was rich in poetry, legend and song. Whenever there was a feast to greet guests, or celebrate weddings or the safe return of voyagers, the bards or 'skalds' were called on to tell stories and sing songs.

These stories were colourful and dramatic. They told of kings and queens, princes and princesses, duels and battles, and great journeys across the sea. They offered heroes to admire, villains to fear, and made the listeners tremble and gasp with tales of love and daring, power and cunning. Stories, like the ones in this book, were their window on the whole world.

These stories of Norse heroes, beautifully retold by the renowned storyteller Isabel Wyatt, are drawn from the collection of tales compiled by Saxo Grammaticus and other early Scandinavian writers.

Includes an informative introduction. These stories are particularly useful for those teaching Norse mythology in Steiner-Waldorf Class 4 (age 9-10).

Reviews

"The eight stories in this collection are beautifully retold by Isabel Wyatt… These stories will keep your children spellbound, give them mighty adventures to act out and provide soul food for the adults with their eternal truths and inspiring bravery… I am very pleased that these tales are once more available for a new generation of readers."
--Anna Phillips, New View, Autumn 2010.

'With engaging style, the daily life and culture of the Norsemen are reflected within stories, and all the drama of the conflicts and passions are well told. The gods are mentioned in passing as the deities for respecting, but not for interference in the daily lives of mortal man. This results in a different flavour and understanding of the Norsemen's culture with tales of heroes to admire, villains to fear, teales of love and daring, power and cunning… The stories are broken into episodes, and so useful for reading aloud, as well as personal reading.'
-- School Librarian

'The world of the Norsemen was rich in poetry, legend and song. Whenever there was a feast to greet guests, to celebrate weddings or the safe return of voyagers, the bards were called upon to tell stroies and sing songs… The stories in this book, retold by storyteller Isabel Wyatt, are drawn from the collection of tales compiled of 13th-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus and other early Scandinavian writers.'
--Human Givens, 2010

Author

Isabel Wyatt was born in England in 1901. She spent many years teaching young children and was then, until her retirement in 1965, co-director of studies at Hawkwood College in Gloucestershire. She compiled many books for children, including The Seven-Year-Old Wonder Book, The Eight-Year-Old Legend Book, Homer's Odyssey, King Beetle-Tamer and The Book of Fairy Princes. She died in 1992.

Links

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